


Steve Rogers IS Good at Art and Tony Stark Does NOT Dig in The Trash

by starryprose



Series: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark ARE messes [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, College AU, Engineer Tony Stark, M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 06:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21423505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryprose/pseuds/starryprose
Summary: Steve Rogers is kind of regretting majoring in art (Not really but man is art getting on his nerve), until he abandons a piece in the trash in the campus dumpster and the cute engineering major aka Tony Stark finds it. Luckily, Tony has a thing for red and gold and he likes Steve's art. Of course, it takes a small party for Steve to learn this and an awkward explanation from a pretty engineering major.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark ARE messes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1544764
Comments: 9
Kudos: 137





	Steve Rogers IS Good at Art and Tony Stark Does NOT Dig in The Trash

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this post https://kylizzles.tumblr.com/post/188915873621/imagine-your-otp on tumblr and was thoroughly inspired to write this short and crappy stevetony thing. Please enjoy! I might make it a series with Tony's side + their date. We'll see.

Steve Rogers was regretting majoring in art. 

Okay, that was kind of a lie. Steve loved art. He loved the simplicity of sketching, he loved color theory, he just loved art and everything about it. But right now he just didn’t love.. his art.

Steve wasn’t self-deprecating enough to say that his art was awful. He wouldn’t be at this school if it wasn’t for his art. Well, his art and the fact that he grew a foot, and almost a hundred pounds his sophomore year of high school, successfully letting him play football. But that was beside the point, the point was his art which was looking like a disaster of red and gold puke on the canvas. 

He’d tried to draw his friend Natasha in a sort of abstract way. Nat had dark red curls, explaining the red on the canvas. The rich color looped around the ‘face’ that Steve had drawn (though it looked like less of a face and more of a weird circle that’s coloring didn’t mimic Nat’s porcelain skin). 

Nat also loved to wear gold jewelry. Her long fingers were coated in thin gold bands and she wore a bracelet that had gold beads. She teased (or at least Steve assumed it was teasing but he was never sure when it came to Natasha), that when she pressed the bracelet a certain way the gold balls would tase anyone who tried to get handsy,

“My friend made it for me”, She had said, rotating her delicate wrist to show the bracelet, “He’s good with machines and his hands.” (That comment hadn’t made Steve blush. It hadn’t! and Nat hadn’t winked at him either). 

Nat also wore a simple gold chain around her neck and occasionally she’d pull her hair back with a delicate gold clip. Red and gold were some of Nat’s signature colors, besides black, and so Steve had incorporated gold into the art of her.

Despite his best efforts and attempts though, it hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped. Frustrated, Steve abandoned the canvas, going to wash off his pallet and brushes in the small  
sink that was in him and his roommate Sam’s room. Steve knew if he didn’t wash them off now, he would accidentally leave them out and the paint would ruin the delicate brush hairs and stain the wood. Art supplies were too expensive for that and Steve slightly mourned the wasted paint that sloshed down the drain.

He ignored the canvas for a bit, instead, reading his art history book, attempting to prepare for the test he had next week but the abstract disaster he’d created haunted him from the easel. Finally, with a huff of frustration, Steve snatched the canvas off the easel and marched out to the dumpster between his dorm the next one beside him. He shoved the easel into the dumpster bin, ignoring the way the red and gold paint glinted a little in the sun.

By the time he got back to his room, he felt a bit guilty. Steve didn’t usually throw out his work if anything he could’ve painted over it. It was a bit too late now though, the sun had set and Sam was back now, flipping quickly through a biology textbook. Steve admired the fact that Sam was rather savy in STEM fields, unlike Steve. It confused him a bit on why Sam hadn’t been placed in the other dorm next door that housed most of the male STEM students. But Steve wasn’t complaining, Sam was a great roommate.

***

A few weeks passed and Steve, for the most part, forgot about the old painting of Natasha. He remembered it faintly when he went to paint with his red and gold again and notice the lack of color in their tubes, or when he was down a canvas, but overall the painting was forgotten. Luckily he hadn’t told Natasha about it or he’d be back on that project very very quickly. Natasha was terrifying and a bit demanding.

As of today, a chilly Friday in October, Steve was narrowly resisting the demanding insistence of his roommate, Natasha, and Natasha’s friend Clint to attend a small dorm party. Steve is putting up a fight, he always does and he always loses.

“Come on, Steve! It’s a small party, just some other science nerds and my buddy from ROTC. Plus Clint and Nat. It’ll be fun.” Sam is saying and his eyes are warm and brown and he’s pulling out a pout. 

“If I have to hear Sam beg you one more time, I’m switching my hearing aids off and helping Nat drag you there,” Clint claims, his muscular arms from years of archery (which is kind of an odd hobby in Steve’s mind but he can’t comment), crossed across his chest. Nat has turned her nose up at the comment and Sam looks a little hurt.

“As if I couldn’t move him by myself,” Natasha replies rolling her eyes. She linked her fingers through Steve’s tugging it sharply, “up and at ‘em, Cap. I’m not missing good booze and brownies because you’re being whiny.”

Steve groans at the Cap nickname. Nat was on and off again with Steve’s best friend, Bucky. Bucky had known Steve since they were kids and Steve had always played Captain in games, carrying around a cardboard shield his Da had made him that had a big star in the middle. Steve had painted it with his own dollar store paint and cheap brushes. Bucky had told Natasha about the nickname, well Nat and all of their friends, and now it’d arisen again with an embarrassing vengeance.

“Guys, I need to study.” Steve tried to argue helplessly, reaching for his textbook but Natasha’s other hand reached out and she wrapped her small hand as much as she could around his wrist and gave another sharp tug.

“Up. Now, Rogers.” Natasha said, her green eyes narrowing dangerously. Sam and Clint shared a look behind her, before staring at Steve and gesturing their hands in up motions. Steve knew when he was defeated so he let Nat help pull  
him to his feet. As if reading his mind, Nat shook her head, “You’re not changing clothes, Steven. Time for that has passed. Let’s go.”

So, Steve was stuck in his t-shirt, jeans, and an old blue bomber jacket. His sneakers were more beat up than he liked and he was pretty sure there were paint stains on these jeans but he didn’t attempt to argue with Natasha anymore than he already had. She stayed beside him during the walk to the next-door dorm, her black boots clicking on the concrete and her jewelry glinting in the yellow sidewalk lighting. Natasha had always been beautiful and Steve was a little remorseful he couldn’t do her justice when it came to that (not very) long ago painting.

Sam rapped on a door when they arrived and there was some music littering out from it. The dorms in this section were larger, at least double what Steve and Sam’s were, and more like suites. After a minute, a lanky boy with darker skin than Sam opened the door. He had a warm grin but the same set shoulders all ROTC kids had. 

“Rhodes!” Sam greeted and Rhodes (it sounded more like a last name?) tugged Sam into a hug.

“Sam! Hey dude, I’m glad you could come.” Rhodes replied, his teeth white and bright. “Come on in,” He said opening the door wider. The lighting was blue-toned in the room and Steve could count a few people in there.

When he entered the room most of the other attendants peered up at him from their placements. There was a large blonde boy, his hair long and his eyes electric blue. He had his arm around a girl with soft brown hair. On the other side of the boy was a boy with dark ruffled curls and thin glasses, who was wearing a dark green oversized hoodie that said “SMASH” in large block white letters. There was also another girl with strawberry blonde hair and chunky bangs across her forehead who was reading over a business textbook. Steve wondered if he was allowed to bring his textbooks, he should’ve. 

“This is the rest of the gang,” Rhodes said gesturing to them. “I’m Jim Rhodes but you can call me Rhodey. The blonde one is Thor, his girl is Jane,” and the girl with soft brown hair waved a little. “That’s Bruce and this is Pepper.”

“Who is one day going to take over the world.” Another voice chimed in from behind Rhodes, no, Rhodey. Rhodey stepped aside and there was a slightly shorter boy standing behind him. The boy was, well, gorgeous. He had bronze sort of skin with large brown eyes. His nose was softly curved and his jaw had a harsh jut to it that reminded Steve of his first girlfriend, Peggy. The other boy’s hair was a mess of dark curls on his head and he grinned in the charming way many boys like him did. “Hi, Nat, nice to see you again. How’s the bracelet?”

Nat grinned her cat-like grin beside him. “Haven’t had a good reason come up to use it yet but you know I like to test it without good reasons, Tony. It works perfectly.”

“Yeah, you test it on me!” Clint exclaimed from beside Nat and she pursed her lips at him.

“Oh, you poor baby.” She said and the boy, (Tony, maybe?), laughed.

“Don’t give her reasons to test it, Barton.” 

“His existence is a reason to test it,” Nat said simply and she walked forward to wrap her arm around the boy’s waist, hugging him. After that she darted off to Pepper, sitting beside the other girl.

“I’m Tony,” the boy said, stepping forward to introduce himself to Steve. 

“Uh, Steve. Pleasure to meet you.” Steve stumbled, holding his hand out to Tony. Tony grinned.

“Pleasures all mine, gorgeous,” Tony said taking Steve’s hand and behind him, Rhodey rolled his eyes. That caused Steve’s gaze to be brought up, and, wait a minute. Was that Steve’s shitty artwork of Natasha on the wall?

“Hey. That’s my art.” Steve said pointing to the canvas and Tony’s eyes followed it. Rhodey and Sam had fun walked off to get drinks. Tony’s brows knitted together.

“I found it in the trash.” Tony said but then he frowned a little, “that’s probably not the best thing to say to someone. I promise I’m not weird, I don’t regularly just root through the trash. I’m not like a hobo, which is obvious because this is Rhodey and I’s door-”

“No, I put it there. I trashed it. It was supposed to be of Nat but,” Steve shrugged. “I didn’t like it very much. The colors just didn’t work the way I needed them to.”

“The colors are brilliant!” Tony said, his eyes widening. “I’ve been working on building this like robotic sort of thing? The color scheme for it is red and gold. I saw it in the dumpster and I loved it, I mean it’s great! I couldn’t let that be trashed.”

“It’s some of my worst work, but thank you,” Steve said blushing some, reaching up to rub the back of his rapidly reddening neck. His brain was short-circuiting a little, running along the thought process of, pretty boy likes my art, pretty boy is pretty. Great job, brain. 

“If that’s your worst work I’d kill to see your best work.” Tony said with an easy grin. “Maybe we can hang out sometime? You can show me your best work, I can show you how red and gold go well together.” 

“I mean Nat pulls of red and gold really well,” Steve said and Tony’s grin lessened a little. Steve’s eyes widened. Steve was stupid, he just needed to say sure. He could see pretty boy, Tony, again. “That sounds great, Tony. Really great.”

Tony smiled easily. “Okay, okay, great! It’s, um, a date.” Tony tried and he gave a wink that contradicted his stumbling. Tony took a step back, grabbing a sharpie off the table near him and he held the top in his mouth as he scribbled numbers across Steve’s hand. And, God, Steve needed to not think about Tony’s mouth because Steve was only human and bi and Tony was, well, hot. “You can text me or call or whatever.”

“I will do that,” Steve said, grinning back a little. “Not everyday an engineer and a fan wants to hang out with little ole me.” 

“I am definitely both of those. And I don’t think you’re very little.” Tony replied and at that point, Natasha appeared. 

“Hello, boys. I’m glad you’re hitting it off but for some reason, Rhodey and Tony forgot to buy food. So, we’re going to get Chinese. You coming?” She asked, raising a brow and sending Tony a judging look. 

“Yeah, we are,” Steve said. 

So, maybe the artwork hadn’t been such a waste of time after all.


End file.
